CONCRETE TIME
Време на бетон
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2024
Running time: 56 minutes
Director: Igor Ivanov Izi
Screenplay: Igor Ivanov Izi, Tomi Salkovski
Producer:
Leading role: Nikola Ristanovski, narrator
A story about Skopje, more precisely its architectural and urban history with a special focus on the modern architecture, which follows the city from the beginning of the twentieth century to the brief era of brutalism.
Director Information:
Igor Ivanov Izi
Igor Ivanov Izi is a film director and writer, born 1973 in Skopje, Macedonia. He started his professional career in 1993, directing TV series. From 1995 to 2004 he made several short films and documentaries presented and awarded at festivals worldwide. His short "Bubachki" was in competition of the 54th Berlinale and won a Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival. In 2007 his first feature film Upside Down was presented at Karlovy Vary film festival and won the Best Director prize at Mostra De Valencia Film Festival. His second feature titled as "The Piano Room" was released in Macedonia on 15th September 2013 and premiered in USA at 50th Chicago Film Festival. The working title of his next full-length movie is "The Sugar Kid".
The immediate response to the devastating earthquake in Skopje in 1963 was a massive construction in Brutalist style within a joint project of Yugoslav and foreign experts, especially the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. The Macedonian documentary traces the major projects of this heyday, placing them in the overall context of architectural and urban history and getting to the current decay of the city. A very personal spoken commentary on the film explains that the strength of the projects lies not only in their concrete foundation, but rather in their symbolic value.